Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui
Blonde, bouncy Buffy is your typical high school cheerleader. But all that changes when a strange man informs her she's been chosen by fate to kill vampires.
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What critics compared Buffy the Vampire Slayer to
There is not a single original moment in the film, which borrows most of its ideas from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter.
It’s a self-aware horror/action comedy, first in a possible franchise (sigh) based on Richelle Mead’s books, that sits somewhere on the border between “Twilight”, “Harry Potter” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Based on Richelle Mead’s young adult supernatural novels, the Vampire Academy movie plays out as a blend of Harry Potter-style fantasy world building and Buffy the Vampire Slayer-inspired use of supernatural tropes as (very) thinly-veiled subtext for the modern high school experience.
Written and directed by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon, "Avengers" takes six heroes who have zero business hanging out in the same movie — the aforementioned genius playboy Tony "Iron Man" Stark, man-out-of-time Steve "Captain America" Rogers, god-out-of-orbit Thor, hulking scientist Bruce Banner, and stone-cold spies Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff and Clint "Hawkeye" Barton — and creates a cohesive whole that, against all odds, completely and utterly works.
There’s nothing here that hasn’t been seen before — Clare having swiped big hunks of plot from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Twilight” along with a certain well-known shocking revelation from the “Star Wars” saga — but everything chugs along briskly and reasonably entertainingly until running off the rails a bit with a wildly overcomplicated finale.
In the same way “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” flipped the trope of the doomed blonde cheerleader who trips running through the woods, Halloween 2018 also mirrors the oft-imitated crunchy bits originating in the 1978 version and reinvents them to cheer-worthy effect.
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Shot in elegant widescreen and set to a soundtrack of empowerment ballads, “Before I Fall” forgoes the overlit Disney Channel look, embracing a cooler, steely-blue aesthetic that’s more in line with such bygone cult faves as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Veronica Mars” — plus, it unfolds in that post-Judy Blume space where it’s OK to broach such touchy issues as teen suicide and contraception.
Caleb, meantime, is being visited by said mysterious strangers from beyond—who apparently monitor our media and enjoyed Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner, Spike in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and Sting in Dune, since they all do the white-spiky-hair, glowering, trench-coat thing.
There’s an interesting moral stance to explore here but the script, by Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Jason Hall, isn’t up to the task.
Also, it's surprising how lame the character banter and dialogue is, considering the script writers were Ben Edlund (the "Tick" animated series), John August ("Go") and Joss Whedon (TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer").
"Titan A.E." was written by three men who should have done something incredible: Ben Edlund (TV's "The Tick"), John August (1999 indie hit "Go") and Joss Whedon (TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"; "Toy Story").
Amazingly, the screenplay is by three talented writers: Joss Whedon of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (both the 1992 movie and the current TV show) and Toy Story (1995), John August of Go (1999), and Ben Edlund, creator of the comic book and cartoon series "The Tick".
The plodding story (written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Joss Whedon and a gaggle of others) is an uninspired, nonsensical muddle that pilfers freely from the Star Wars movies and a bit from Star Trek II and III.
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As the Bye Bye Man, Jones doesn’t get to employ as much of the celebrated physicality he has brought to past roles in “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Hellboy.”
One of the strengths of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and there were many, is was how it turned the horrors of high school into literal monsters.